When she looked up from her book, there he was. Sitting directly in front of her. Her look was one of puzzlement and confusion. She had no experience with strangers brazenly approaching her in public like this.
He smiled, said hello, and asked her name. She told him her name was Helene almost as a reflex while she tried to size him up. She showed her nervousness about his appearing out of nowhere. Her guard was up but he knew she was too polite to simply tell him to get lost. He had the initiative and he meant to use it.
"You know, I like to people watch." he said.
"I am sometimes fascinated by the people I see. I must confess that I have watched you in here on a few occasions and became quite interested in you. That is why I wanted to meet you. Have you ever noticed that you can really see a great deal about a person's character just by observing them in a public setting?"
Helene was trying to process what was happening here and what to do. She was asked a direct question. Part of her thought this required an answer but the whole event was foreign enough to make her want to start with some questions of her own - to back things up a little. Who was this guy and why was he bothering her? Also, there was something about the look on this guy's face. He was so calm and relaxed. His manner was so matter of fact. It was as if he was merely continuing an ongoing conversation instead of starting this peculiar cold call.
"I suppose everyone makes assumptions about people they see." she said.
Before Helene could start asking any of the questions piling up in her head, he continued leading the conversation.
"I want to tell you a little bit about myself and explain why I am so interested in you if you will simply listen for a few minutes. I promise it will be brief and all I ask is you listen without interruption."
He scarcely waited for a response before he continued.
"First of all, my main interest in people watching is usually occupational. I am a writer by trade and I am always trying to hone my skills in sizing people up and understanding how they will respond to various situations. I work very hard to get an insight into their interests, their motivations, and their desires."
She felt like this was a new kind of come-on. It seemed like an elaborate sales pitch to her but she was listening to it nonetheless. She was curious to know how this ploy would develop.
"I had been working on something in particular for a new story." he continued.
"I was trying to write a new character in a story but I had been seriously stuck. The problem was that I didn't feel like I could really penetrate the emotional range and response of the character in the way I normally require. While I was struggling with this problem, it just so happened that I began to notice you and start watching you. You became important to my story."
He could tell the delivery of this line created the intended air of anticipation - albeit mixed with mild anxiety. He was committed now and there was no turning back.
"I will explain in a very general and simplified sense what the connection is. The character I am interested in is a woman who is in a fundamental sense of good character. She is kind, sensitive, responsible, thoughtful , genuine - in a way she represents to me many of the idealized feminine character traits that are so often lacking in men. That is to say, she is more more thoughtful, more sensitive than most."
He paused briefly and observed her face to gauge her reaction.
"She is someone who has an appreciation for the arts, is an avid reader, and craves new experiences and intellectual stimulus. Lastly, she is a bit sheltered in her experience. She has always been a good girl and a bit cautious by nature. Because of this - for the purposes of my story - she has a certain void in her life that she is perhaps only dimly aware of. She doesn't realize that there are parts of her nature that have long been held in reserve. A nature that is primitive and powerful that would surprise her by virtue of its intensity and the reckless abandon it might promote."
"In my story, this woman meets a man who understands this part of her character, and who views the role of revealing these latent desires as the most erotic and exciting thing that can occur between a man and a woman. It is a story about desire more than anything."
"As I mentioned I have been watching you. Almost everyday you come in here and I have been carefully studying you. The more I studied you, the more I wrote with you in mind. The more I wrote with you in mind, the more convinced I became that you are just like the character I have created. I think I believe this so strongly because watching you helped so much to make real progress on my story. I initially thought about just giving you the story out of the blue to read with no real explanation and walk away. I imagined what would happen if you recognized yourself in the main character. And so it began. But my imagination didn't stop there. I became fascinated and obsessed by the idea of living out the fiction I created in reality - to have my story become non-fiction you might say. What I propose is that you and I should become these characters in real life for a time."
Her eyes became very round and wide at this point and he wondered for just an instant if she might make a dash for the door, but she continued to sit and take it all in with her full attention. and As he began to reveal the details during this encounter, she could feel her heart start to beat a little bit faster and the blood start to rise. She could feel herself beginning to blush at these words and was trying to compose herself enough to think straight.
At first, she was trying to decide whether he was off his medication at the moment or just being put up to this as some kind of stunt. She did not feel afraid of him though. He was well spoken and concise . He seemed to be enjoying delivering this little speech and showed a certain confidence. At times he seemed amused as if he couldn't help see some humor in this absurd little proposal he was making.
Above all, he struck her as very sincere somehow. This was no put-on. She believed that she really was being offered a role to play whatever it might be. Her curiosity for the moment was eclipsing a host of other thoughts. She had a million questions now. But again, he gave her no time to take some initiative in this unusual conversation as he pressed on.
"Here is what you need to know if you choose to play along with your role to the end. First, it will last 6 weeks weeks. It will require thirty minutes one day each week, and it will require at the end of the sixth week on a Friday night a total of four hours. You will be only required to be yourself, and respond to events however you see fit. You will be presented with situations and choices where you may simply choose to play along. The characters in my story are concerned with risk and control - the having and the surrendering. That is important to keep in mind when you make your decision."
"I am putting in front of you a card with my email address on it. I don't expect an answer right now, and I am no hurry to receive it. Just think about it for as long as you need. If and when you are ready, just simply send me a message saying you are ready to start and I will direct everything after that. You will get instructions which you will either follow each day or not. If you choose not to follow at any point, then the book is closed and our meetings are at an end. I will not contact you after that. Think what you will about all of this but I am certain of one thing; I am offering to you something no one has ever offered you before. I look forward to playing with you. I know you will."
He began to rise from his chair and gave her a fixed look as he slowly and gently grabbed her by the hand and raised it to his lips and kissed it. After that he abruptly got up, and walked away without looking back. As suddenly as he appeared, he was gone.
